“THE TRUCK IS HERE!” Alex ran to the front window of the Lodgepole Inn.
“Truck! Truck! Truck!” Andy hopped across the room to join him.
Zeke sighed and set down the book they’d been reading. He had two more days to work and fulfill his promise to Sophie as her babysitter. Every breath felt heavy. Every look laden with longing. Every word weighed and measured for meaning. He and Sophie hadn’t been alone since her mother arrived.
Thankfully, it’d been a quiet day. Sophie and Laurel were across the street working in their shops. Mitch and Shane had taken Camden and Sophie’s mother on a tour of Second Chance and the surrounding valley.
“Truck! Truck! Truck!”
The brown delivery truck didn’t stop at the inn. Instead, it backed up to the garage bay of the general store.
“That’s what he does when he has car parts.” Gabby sat at the check-in desk doing her math homework. “Makes unloading easier, I guess.”
“Car parts?” Zeke perked up. “Boys, let’s go see.”
They put on their jackets and sneakers with lights in the heels that flashed every time they took a step. It hadn’t snowed in a week.
The twins linked arms and marched to the general store chanting, “Truck! Truck! Truck!”
Zeke almost sang along with them. The delivery was certain to contain parts needed to repair his truck.
When they spotted Mack, she said as much. “Won’t be long until I have your baby running again.” She examined the deliveries and checked them against the driver’s manifest. “I bet that feels good to hear.”
It did. Zeke would regain his independence.
The twins had each latched on to one of Zeke’s hands and were trying to spin around him like he was a maypole.
Roy joined them, pounding his chest as if something had gone down the wrong pipe. “Need any help with it, Mack?”
“No.” She finished inspecting the paperwork and the two pallets that held her order. “I can’t start it until tonight.” She jerked her thumb toward the general store. “I’ve got a steady stream of customers, thanks to Sophie and Laurel.”
“When do you think you’ll have it done?” Zeke let the boys turn him slowly in place.
“Next week.” At Zeke’s groan, she added, “I’m sorry. I’m just swamped.”
The slow turn now represented the speed at which Zeke’s life was moving, which was almost nil. “You could hire Emily Clark. She needs some space from Franny.” She’d stopped by the inn the other day looking for work.
The driver closed his back door and bid them farewell.
“Or I could help,” Roy piped up, still pounding a fist to his breastbone. “I may not know how to connect that newfangled steering column. But I know a radiator when I see one. That, I can do. If Zeke can help me with the heavy lifting.”
Zeke stopped being a maypole and gave Mack a hopeful smile. “What do you think?” Because he was thinking: How hard could it be to install a radiator when the old one was already out?
“Well…” Mack was a penny-pincher, having scrabbled to earn a living for years. It probably pained her to let an opportunity to make a buck pass her by.
Despite Roy’s saying he had no interest installing the new steering column and wheel, Roy bent to examine the piece.
“And…” Mack said.
The twins tugged on Zeke’s arms.
A car parked in front of the store and two kids ran inside with a bathroom wiggle to their step.
Mack took a step after them.
“We negotiated on a price, Mack,” Zeke said. “I’m not going to deal you down.” Fair was fair.
And the sooner his truck was fixed, the sooner he’d be seeing less of Sophie. He’d be out at the Bucking Bull and wouldn’t need to come into town to check on the truck or her. She’d realize what a mistake her interest in him was and going their separate ways would be that much easier.
Mack nodded. “I’ll open the bay. But I’m only authorizing you to install the radiator, Roy. And you have to promise to call me if you have any questions.”
Roy straightened and saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Zeke agreed, standing taller. And then he knelt with the twins. “We’re going to fix my truck. Which means you can each bring one toy and one book from inside for when you aren’t helping.” Actually, he didn’t plan on letting them help at all, other than having a good look-see inside the engine compartment. But where was the fun for a boy in that?
Alex and Andy went racing back to the inn.
Mack greeted the couple getting out of the car and gave them the nickel tour of the town—diner, store, boutique, trading post. And then she escorted them inside her store.
Alex stopped at the corner of the inn. “Can I bring two books?”
“You can bring three books.” Zeke shooed him off, before turning to Roy. “I’m assuming you’ve put in a radiator before.”
“Long time ago. It was an army Jeep.” Roy rubbed his breastbone and swallowed. “Pretty standard stuff. Back then, they made radiators from metal. Yours looks to be plastic.”
Zeke hadn’t paid a lot of attention to what went under the hood, but he realized what Roy said was true.
“Good thing about plastic…” Roy patted Zeke on the back. “It’s easier to lift.”
The garage door rolled up. “It’s all yours, boys,” Mack said, smiling. “Including bringing all those car parts here. Thanks!” She waved and disappeared inside.
An hour later, the twins were bouncing about in the cab of Zeke’s truck, having read their books and lost interest in the toys they’d brought along. The garage door was down to shelter them from the breeze coming down the hill.
“Can we play with your phone, Zeke?” Andy poked his head out the passenger window.
“No.” They didn’t need to distract themselves with technology.
“Please.” Alex leaned toward his brother from the driver’s seat.
Zeke and Roy were wrestling with the brackets that held the radiator in place and had been for a good half hour.
“You have skills at fixing things, Zeke.” Roy stood, rubbing his chest. “Man, this heartburn.”
“Did you eat Ivy’s chili again?”
Roy shook his head, brow wrinkled.
“Please!” the twins chorused, still pleading for his phone.
The old man leaned against the truck fender. His face was turning red.
“Please!”
“No phone.”
“I had the turkey sandwich.” Roy stared at Zeke, but he didn’t seem to see him. “I’ve never had indigestion from a turkey sandwich.”
“Please!”
Zeke handed the boys his phone absently. “Do not make any phone calls.”
“What is this?” Andy flipped the phone open.
“That’s not a phone,” Alex said.
Roy put his hands on his knees, shaking his head. “I don’t feel so good.”
“It’s an old phone.” What use did Zeke have for a smartphone? He helped Roy over to a stool in the corner by the workbench. “I’ll get you a water.”
“Is it hot in here?” Roy panted.
“This is indigestion, right?” Zeke asked. There was no doctor in town and the nearest medical clinic was an hour’s drive away. “Roy? Roy?”
The old man slid off the stool in slow motion. Zeke barely kept him from falling onto the ground.
Roy’s eyes were wide. His body tense as if he was hurting. His mouth gaped open like that fish they’d caught weeks ago, and he was struggling for breath.
“Alex! Andy! Go get help.”
Roy stopped breathing. His body went limp.
“Go! Now!” Zeke began CPR.
The next few minutes were a blur. Compressions. Breaths. Feeling for a pulse. Finding none. Sweating. Compressions. Breaths.
“I brought everything.” Gabby burst through the side door nearest the inn with the twins on her heels. “Phone. First-aid kit. Defibrillator. What do you…” She took one look at Zeke performing resuscitation, dropped a large box near Zeke and made a phone call on the inn’s wireless house phone. “What’s my emergency? Man down.”
“Tell them his heart stopped and he’s not breathing.” Zeke didn’t lose his rhythm. “Boys, go find Mack. And he’s not responding to CPR.”
Gabby relayed Zeke’s information about Roy’s condition and then their address.
Alex and Andrew stood close together, holding hands.
“Yes, we have one of those.” Gabby knelt next to the defibrillator and opened it up. She stared at Zeke, eyes wide and panic-stricken. “I…I…I can’t do this.”
It was important to stay calm.
Zeke was cold inside, despite sweating from effort and adrenaline. “Don’t you die on us, Roy.”
The twins began the windup to a wail.
“Alex. Andy. I need you to go find Mack.” In the back of his mind, Zeke was counting. Five more compressions before he needed to give Roy two more breaths.
Instead of retrieving Mack, the twins climbed into the cab of his truck, ducking down so they couldn’t see. There was nothing Zeke could do about them now. He wasn’t going to tell them to run across the street to their mother.
“We can do that,” Gabby said into the phone, still staring at Zeke. “I mean, Zeke can do that.” She held her phone to her chest. “They want you to use the defibrillator.” She gestured toward the open unit with her hand.
Zeke paused to give Roy oxygen and then returned to the task of keeping the old man’s heart beating. He stared at the machine and gulped. “I…I know how to do CPR, but that machine…”
“There are instructions.” Gabby set down her phone and held up a card with words. Too many words. “Right here.” Comprehension dawned. Her shoulders drooped. “Oh.” She’d remembered Zeke couldn’t read.
Roy might die because Zeke couldn’t read. His insides knotted tighter than one of those knots Egbert used to fasten flies to a fishing line.
The concrete was cold beneath his knees. Roy’s face was pale. It wasn’t right that the feisty old guy was going to die here, next to a grease stain.
“I can read them to you.” Gabby sat up. “I can read them to you!”
Together they figured out where to put on the two electrodes and how to operate the machine, all while Zeke kept Roy alive.
Or at least while he kept up hope that Roy would stay alive until trained medical help arrived.
“Let’s hope this works.” Zeke shocked him.
Roy convulsed and sucked in air. Zeke felt for his pulse. It was there. Weak and slow. The old man drew a small breath on his own.
The door from the general store swung open. “How’s it going in here?” Mack gasped and then ran to them. “Roy?”
“We need a doctor,” Gabby said through her tears.
“There’s one about to leave.” Mack sprinted off.
Leaving Gabby and Zeke to hold vigil over Roy as he fought for life.
* * *
THERE WAS A lull in business. Sophie went next door to check on Laurel.
Odette sat in a rocker in the corner, knitting. She wore a chunky beige fisherman’s sweater over a black turtleneck and a blue wool skirt. “I have to admit, you two were right. People actually pay money for things I make.”
“Because they’re beautiful,” Sophie told her.
“I must have said that a hundred times.” Laurel sat on a stool behind the counter, laying out fabric in a quilt block. “She just wants to hear it again.”
Odette gave Laurel a narrow-eyed glare. “If you weren’t so talented with a needle and thread, I’d put you in your place.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Laurel rolled her eyes. “A little less talk and a lot more productivity. Notice how much we’ve sold from your corner of the shop. We need to restock.”
Sophie became aware of a hum. Distant. Like a truck coming over the summit.
“I’ve sold more than Flip’s pictures have.” Odette cackled gleefully. “I’m finally besting her. Who’d have thought after all these years…”
The hum turned into a high-pitched whine.
Sophie went to the door and looked out.
“Is that a helicopter?” Laurel joined Sophie at the open door.
Sophie’s heart lurched. “The last time there was a helicopter here, it was for Zeke.” To take him to the hospital.
Laurel clutched her arm. “It’s landing at the intersection. Why?”
“Because we don’t have a town doctor.” Sophie tugged herself free and ran for the steps leading to the highway.